Beyond the Sea
by LeafCake
Summary: Chala is perfect in every way. She is a princess, the daughter of Queen Coral. But she is affected by a dreadful condition known as softscales. She can hardly ever leave the sanctuary of her kingdom. When she is enrolled at an academy, she is overjoyed - then one of her winglet members go missing. Now she has to brave her condition, and find them.


The gentle waves scattered the setting sun like the sequins that lay scattered from the festival in the new palace. The yellow ball of fire changed to hues of orange, and then almost tangerine, blazing the various colours of the deepsea corals. It merged with the sky, like papaya juice dissolving into the cobalt waves. Silhouettes of albatrosses flew to their nests across a sky that was now magenta; and the sun was half into the water, but its reflection in the sea made it look complete, as if a huge dragon was lurking under the tranquil, unruffled surface of the ocean, lending its fire to Pyrrhia's three moons. Except it wasn't tranquil in the slightest.

The dragons of the sea kingdom were chaotic, running amok as jubilance seized hold of hundreds of minds in its talons. The Ocean Palace overlooked the rest of the Kingdom of the Sea, with architecture even the Summer Palace couldn't have compared to – with many pointed towers that gave the impression of a crown, and marble walls dotted with pearls and seashells that glistened the hues of what seemed like every single fish in the sea, it must be visible to the SkyWings all the way up north.

Statues of former SeaWing monarchs that were later recovered from the rubble caused by the devastation of the Summer Palace now had new life, guarding the entrance and glowering at intruders only their fierce, gemstone-embedded eyes could see; Urchin had to remind himself, as he was on his way to a private audience with Queen Coral, that they were only great hunks of marble. Certainly not actual dragons waiting for the opportunity to drag him into the most dimly-lit trench in the ocean and disembowel him with a jagged spear.

But after the situation with Orca and the queen's heirs a year ago, he was unsure whether he could ever go past a statue without flinching and looking back over his shoulder twice to check for movement – maybe _thrice – _and prick his ears, fearing that they would pick up the slightest creaking of stone as a marble dragon advanced from its pedestal…

_You were a messenger under the queen during the war. You were willing to risk your life delivering messages from archipelago to archipelago, yet you get unnerved by nonliving dragons that are certainly _not _animus enchanted. _

But Urchin could not restrain his hammering heart when he moved past a cobalt sculpture of an ancient SeaWing queen as he stepped as discreetly as he could into the entrance, her sapphire eyes pinning Urchin down, sharp as a SandWing's tail barb. A million thoughts flooded into his head: _What if that one were animus enchanted, too? What would happen if it were? How would it kill me if that was the enchantment? _

Princess Orca, Queen Coral's first daughter, had challenged her mother for the throne all those years ago. She was slaughtered, but left behind a deadly gift that would rip away the lives of Coral's future daughters, crushing the newborn dragonets with its lethal marble talons as easily as a rockfall crushing a group of scavengers. Until the queen's missing daughter had uncovered the mystery, not one dragon in the entire Kingdom of the Sea had any hint of a clue on who the assassin was. Except for Orca, of course.

Whose bones now lay in a sea trench in who-knows-where. Maybe _those _were enchanted as well; the princess's skeleton could stalk up on the unsuspecting queen at any moment and dispatch her. Shivers ran down his spine and Urchin drew his wings closer to himself self-consciously as he passed yet another dragon, this time a well-muscled male with metallic, sky-blue scales. He must have been a king, given his commanding stare. A plate, pure gold by the looks of it, were screwed onto its pedestal, with the inscription:

KING HUMPBACK

HUSBAND OF QUEEN LAGOON

SLAIN IN THE ROYAL SEAWING MASSACRE

HIS BONES NOW LIE WITH THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN

Prince Albatross. Brother to Queen Lagoon, an animus who let his soul slip away when his sister used him. _This __dragon __was killed by an animus._

_Urchin, pull yourself together. The Royal SeaWing Massacre happened over two thousand years ago. Albatross is long gone. __You're just a coward. A weak, oversuspicious, superstitious coward. _He hated himself right then for the ice-cold tendrils of reverence that entangled him in long snares. Afraid of STATUES_, _of all things. Nonetheless, it was massively consoling to him when the familiar voices of his tribemates drifted toward him. The grand ballroom was as regal and imposing as the rest of the palace, the floor laced with gold starbursts and shapes like upturned leaves. A boulder of sorrowfulness slammed into his chest. These indentations were evidently intended to be shaped like the ones on the uppermost level of the pavilion in their old palace which was now nothing more than a wreckage at the bottom of the brine. The visitors' level on Summer Palace's pavilion was marvellous, with golden carvings in the floor shaped after the royal SeaWings' wing patterns. He was so used to navigating it that he kept expecting to catch sight of the pavilion's magnificent white walls whenever he neared the heart of the Ocean Palace. It had opened a year ago, and the celebrations had been so joyous that the dragons on the lost continent would have had to duck under their side of the ocean and wrap their ears with seaweed to muffle out all the tumultuous clash and excitement, and the endless weeks upon weeks of celebration.

Today was the anniversary – one year since its construction had finished. The queen had hosted a festival to celebrate, stretching from one side of the kingdom to the other. It seemed that there were more SeaWings flowing into the Ocean Palace than there were fish in the sea. Sequins had sparkled in the brilliant afternoon sun, the music played by the band the heartbeat of the milling crowd, food sellers weaving through the mass of onlookers and the aroma of cooked octopus legs and exotic foods had perfumed the air. It was the grand party of the year that Queen Coral had invited everyone to. Now that it was early evening, the exhilaration had been quietened. Ever so slightly. And now the crowd had transferred from the pavilion to the ballroom, masks and feathers brandishing from every angle one could imagine.

Heads raised so that their owners could eye him. Urchin nodded, acknowledging the sea of green and aquamarine and blue heads who had turned in his direction. Then he remembered his first incentive, and glanced around wildly to catch sight of Queen Coral's starbursts flashing here and there, accompanied by her mesmerising blue membranes, and a flash of white which would indicate the eccentric pattern of pearl necklaces that weaved to and fro on her metallic blue scales, giving the impression of a blue piece of patchwork. But he couldn't see Coral anywhere.

_Perhaps she's doing duties in the Deep Palace? _He wondered, aware of his forehead crinkling into a frown.

"_There _you are."

Urchin jumped, half-expecting to find the ghost of Orca creeping up on him and start murdering everyone after driving a spear through his chest; then recognised the voice, whose owner he could sense smiling at his reaction in a mildly amused manner.

"Your majesty." Urchin bowed, lowering his head in a gesture of submission. Other mirrored his action, as Coral straightened herself and strutted around, triggering more responses until every SeaWing in the ballroom had adopted the motility of respect for the ruler of their tribe. Queen Coral dipped her front talon into one of the upturned leaves, and Urchin realised that it was – in fact – a talonprint shape. Tiny pearls dotted the bottom, and her talon had fitted perfectly, her claws adjoining with the grooves so that she looked connected with the rest of the lavish hall, a symbol of her position in the kingdom's hierarchy. The pearls on her necklaces flashed as she turned her head to take in the view of her palace, as if they were made out of the same material from her luminescent stripes. She spread her enormous wings in a gesture of silence.


End file.
